Rangers spot man resembling Railroad Killer

Published: Wednesday, July 07, 1999

MOUNTAINAIR, N.M. {AP} Two people, including a National Park Service ranger, reported seeing a man resembling the so-called Railroad Killer the FBI's "Public Enemy No. 1" near a New Mexico rail line Monday.

The initial sighting around noon Monday was near railroad tracks in the Mountainair area 40 miles southeast of Albuquerque, Torrance County Sheriff Pete Golden said.

A driver traveling on a highway near the tracks reported seeing the man, Golden said.

A similar sighting was reported five miles away and 1 hours later by a park ranger at Abo, the ruins of a 379-year-old Spanish convent near Mountainair. Golden said the Abo ranger told him: "You know, I saw a person exactly that same height and build, and he was over in an arroyo running."

The man wore no shirt and had tattoos, he said, and was running southwest down the arroyo.

"That was of concern to me. The park ranger I know him; he's very credible," Golden said.

About 1 miles down that arroyo, heading southwest, investigators found a shirt hanging on some brush, he said.

"Where we found the shirt was right under the railroad," he said. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad informed sheriff's dispatch that as many as 90 trains a day pass along those tracks, Golden said.

"The train traffic through there is incredible," he said, adding the man could easily have caught a train. But there was no clear evidence Monday that the man was Resendez-Ramirez, a drifter from Mexico charged in two murders and linked to six others around the country.